Harris Home Hardware store in London welcomes dogs in bid to keep animals out of hot vehicles

Home Hardware owners Ron Harris, left, and Tracey Harris, right, are joined by employee Kristen Myers, who placed a sign on the store window inviting dog owners to bring their furry friends inside the store instead of leaving them in sweltering vehicles, at the shop, located near the intersection of Huron and Adelaide streets.
(CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

While most retailers discourage or ban animals from their stores, the Harris Home Hardware in London says leashed, well-behaved dogs are fine.

Owners Ron and Tracy Harris recently adopted the change as an alternative to customers l­eaving dogs in locked cars that can quickly become ovens in summer heat.

Tracy Harris is canine lover and says the policy is working out.

“We have regular customers who bring their dogs in all the time.”

The pet-friendly move at the the 1080 Adelaide St. N. store is applauded by Judy Foster of the London Humane Society, an agency that gets frequent calls about animals trapped in hot cars.

The problem seems to be getting worse, she said.

Recently, the agency and London police had 14 calls in one afternoon about dogs locked in hot cars.

Pet owners don’t realize the dangers even in moderate heat, she said.

As an experiment, the agency put thermometers in a black car when the temperature outside was about 27 C. The thermometer on the front seat reached 43 C. A thermometer put in the window exploded.

“A dog can only last six to 10 minutes in that heat,” Foster said.

“People don’t take their dogs out in extreme cold, but they will take them out in the heat.”

Good Samaritans seeing a trapped dog in distress may be tempted to break the vehicle window, but only police have that legal power and only as a last resort, if the owner can’t be located, Foster said.

There haven’t been any recent cases in this city, but in 2009 a London man was charged in Brantford when his dog died after being left in hot car outside a casino, Foster said.

The Humane Society and ­London police recently partnered on the Heat Kills event to warn pet owners about the dangers of hot vehicles.